(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - So I was watching Wayne’s World the other night.

It’s relentless in its hilarity which borders at times on stupid, but not in a senseless, gratuitous sort of way. It’s an important lesson in early 90s culture - horizontal tears across the knees of jeans, leftover big hair that could easily be formed into power mullets for powerful head-banging to 80s power rock. The t-shirts from this time are vintage collections with jacked up prices at today’s stores. Boys wore boy jeans. Girls wore girl jeans. You went and hung out at your friends’ house to hang out with them, not to text other people you wish were there. The “loud sigh” plea-for-attention social media post had not yet been invented. I passed notes, I didn’t send snaps.

It’s also a trip back to a specific context. Teenagers in contemporary society have been deprived of some of the golden moments of youth. You know, when you were using the phone in the back room to call a girl, and your mom picked up the phone and started dialing grandma? You had to endure every. single. number. punch. until the phone was finally held to an ear and you could then explain that you were on the phone. My Dad would ask who it was, then I’d hear mom in the background, “Fred, hang up the phone!”

When a classic movie like this comes on, you aren’t completely sure you’ll make it through. Maybe because there is something better to distract you, or maybe you figure the movie was so good because of who you were when it came out.
In 1992, I was 11. George H. W. Bush was president, Pete Carroll was defensive coordinator for the New York Jets, Drake was at the bottom, Billy Ray was the notable Cyrus, Gloria Estefan did the halftime show at the second of four-straight Buffalo Bills Super Bowl defeats.

If you look back at anything in 1992, it looks old, and pixelated, and dorky, but we know it wasn’t. Maybe there had to be a bigger emphasis on the process and the craft since all the digital flash of today did not yet exist. Sometimes you look back and marvel at what society was able to accomplish with what it had. Other times, like much of the early 90s examples on YouTube, society looks embarrassingly primitive.

Then there are the gems like Wayne’s World. It makes me feel good that though I don’t know where I put my watch today, I can recite this entire movie. Same goes for Three Amigos. The first time I saw that, it was funny. Once I understood it...

I’m probably bias, but I’m not sure the same comedic complexity exists. It certainly doesn’t exist in the same context, because that’s impossible, so maybe that’s my beef. There’s stupid humor, smart humor and dark humor, but it’s not the same because I’m not the same.

Nothing made that more obvious than over Christmas Break when I saw Dumb and Dumber to. I saw the first edition of the saga of Harry and Lloyd at the theater in Ketchikan when my maturity level matched that of the intended audience.
They, along with Wayne and Garth were characters of my youth. They shaped funny, and made me laugh ... until I almost hurled.

Jeff Lund ©2015

Jeff Lund is a Teacher, Freelance Writer, living in Ketchikan, Alaska
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @alaskalund
Contact Jeff at Email – aklund21@gmail.com

http://www.jlundoutdoors.com

SitNews ©2015
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Ketchikan, Alaska

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